


tempered

by mannelig



Series: Bad Timeline [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: F/M, Primal AU, bad timeline, minor STB spoilers, nondescriptive body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:15:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mannelig/pseuds/mannelig
Summary: Len tells everyone who asks that she doesn't remember what it was like to be tempered, and they call it a blessing.She knows better.
Relationships: Haurchefant Greystone/Warrior of Light
Series: Bad Timeline [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187657
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	tempered

Len tells everyone who asks that she doesn't remember what it was like to be tempered, and they call it a blessing.

She knows better.

There had been a strange calm to it, to knowing she didn't exist anymore, and it had almost felt like being held by him. She knows, of course, that it wasn't actually him. Primals are not the person they were supposed to resurrect.

  
  


Haurchefant dies fighting Zenos at Rhalgr's Reach. It happens not long after Ariadne goes down, and Len spends the rest of the fight in a blind fury. She doesn't let herself think the worst, and when Ariadne is alive, if critical, it gives her hope.

That hope is crushed when she sees him.

His face is slack, almost peaceful, half-lidded blue eyes gone distant. He's on his side, and he'd been reaching out to her when he died. They hadn't been married yet, because Len kept putting it off out of nerves.

But someone, somewhere, had been ready for one of them to die, because no sooner has she let out a broken gasp than he's rising, twisting before her very eyes.

Len has time for her heart to break, and then she’s tempered.

  
  


For a small eternity, she feels _nothing_.

  
  


Then he lets her go, right before her friends take him down, and Len realizes there’s still a piece of him in there. And because Len is a creature of fire and rage, she screams. It’s sudden, it startles everyone, and she doesn’t stop. At some point, words get involved, and that’s when Ceri approaches to try and calm her down.

Len snaps at her, demanding to know how she could possibly have fought _Haurchefant,_ and doesn’t stop until her throat closes up and she begins to sob. Ceri waits for her to finish, and when she does, she walks away. As far as Len knows, she does not stop walking. She wants to go after her and apologize, but the ugly, angry part of her refuses to let her. Instead, she picks up a rock and hurls it at the dead primal, which is already fading away, leaving nothing behind for her to even bury. She picks up another rock and heaves it, tears spilling down her face, then collapses.

Footsteps ring in her ears, and she doesn’t have to turn to know it’s Maddox. “You should have killed me,” she says, voice broken and dull. “You should have _fucking killed me_ , Maddox.”

He’s silent for a moment, and then he says, “That was the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard. Get off you ass and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

Len gets up. “Fuck you.”

She knows he’s smirking by his tone when he says, “Nice comeback, loser.” Without looking, she punches him in the gut. He doesn’t flinch, the bastard. “That’s better, but it’s the last free one you got.”

Lifting her head, Len looks him dead in the eye and punches him again.

  
  


The fight is short and brutal, just fists and teeth. Len loses spectacularly, and lays on the ground a fucking mess, staring up at the sky through tears. Fighting has brought her out of the fog, but that only makes the edges of her heartbreak that much sharper.

Maddox offers her a hand. “C’mon, jackass,” he says, softer than she expects. “Let’s go see Ariadne.”

She wonders what he would do if she ignored him, if she stayed where she was and just died on her own. She thinks of blue eyes and warm arms and knows she can’t. Fresh tears rolling down her cheeks, Len takes Maddox’s hand.


End file.
